Fan Letters: “Kyril Louis Dreyfus needs to change the plan or sell the club”

Thoughts on the club’s direction of travel dominate the agenda today, with unrest seemingly growing towards Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman.

Dear Roker Report,

So, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus says it’s a ‘long term plan’ – probably longer than the normal supporter’s lifetime!

Meanwhile, Kristjaan Speakman has a plan for next season: sell Anthony Patterson, Pierre Ekwah, Dan Neil, and of course Jack Clarke.

That should raise a few quid, and no doubt this is ‘good’ business for the club, but it means that we’ll start all over again, trying to improve young lads and sell again for profit.

This is the plan, but promotion to the Premier League is a dream.

We have owners and shareholders who are some of the richest in the world in Dreyfus and company, yet our only plan is as above. No plan B, and we won’t buy anyone if it involves a fee of any amount.

So, that’s it.

I hope the plan works, otherwise we’re in trouble next season.

Alan Metcalfe

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Alan. Thank you for your letter.

It’s obvious that as our 2023/2024 season has gone off the rails, the blame is being directed in many directions and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus finds himself in the firing line (not unreasonably, in some ways).

You’re right to highlight that there’ll certainly be player departures during the summer, which will signal the next phase of the plan: to reinvest the money we receive into new signings who can hopefully strengthen us and allow the club to keep moving forward with the eventual goal of reaching the top flight (as they’ve repeatedly stated).

Personally, I’m willing to give Kristjaan Speakman and company the chance to do that, but his credibility has taken a hammering in recent months and he faces a huge challenge when the summer transfer window opens.

Let’s hope he can deliver.

Dear Roker Report,

I’m pretty sure I can’t be the only person who’d like to see the back of ‘Project KLD’, and this can be done in one of two ways.

Either Dreyfus changes the project by buying some players in their mid-twenties with Championship experience, or if his arrogance doesn’t allow for that, it’s time to sell.

In my opinion, this season is over as far as the playoffs are concerned, and we should be more worried about being dragged into a relegation fight.

Points-wise, we’re perfectly placed between the two and the way things are going, I can’t see us picking up nine more points, let alone making up the gap to the playoffs.

I think this summer might be a wake up call for the Sunderland faithful, with the transfer business that could be done.

The outgoings could be devastating with what I see as our five most saleable assets of Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard, Jobe, Dan Neil and Anthony Patterson. If we lose too many of them and replace them with more cheap foreign imports, relegation will be a good bet.

I see that Mike Dodds is trying to paper over the cracks by trying to compare the young foreign imports to Jack Clarke’s career at Sunderland, but the obvious difference is that Tottenham paid £10 million for Clarke when he was just eighteen and then destroyed him Jose Mourinho-style.

The club has managed to get him back to his former self, whereas these young foreign imports don’t have any history to be reborn.

I have as much trust in Dreyfus as I had in Madrox, and I personally think that the project description got lost in translation. When Dreyfus said ‘self sustainability’, he meant to say ‘profitability’.

My thoughts are so inclined because of the way I view the last two transfer windows.

Dreyfus told us that he wouldn’t be using his money to finance the club, so all of the players brought in during the summer would’ve been purchased with money that was already within the club.

On transfer deadline day, he sold Ross Stewart and in January this money wasn’t spent completely. We’ve seen Ipswich Town invest more this season than we have and they don’t have parachute payments, but they obviously don’t have a profiteering owner.

I suppose the biggest issue with Dreyfus is that he’d never run a bath before he bought Sunderland, let alone any other business, and this to me shows why he’s failing miserably. A degree in football administration from an Ivy League college doesn’t mean you can run a club successfully.

John Kennedy

Dear Roker Report,

After Saturday, any faint hopes of the playoffs are gone and it’s going to be a mid-table finish by the looks of it.

Since the excitement of the third round draw of the FA Cup, the board of directors and our sporting director have completely cocked up and the responsibility for how the second half of the season has panned out sits with them.

They sacked a head coach they didn’t need to; they hired a replacement who was out of his depth and they completely failed to strengthen in the right areas in January.

The biggest disappointment is that clubs such as Hull City and Ipswich Town gave themselves the best chance they could for the second half of the season, but we didn’t and that’s just not good enough. For me, that’s why this season has been a massive missed opportunity, and bringing in two full backs and a raw talent from Belgium didn’t give us the best chance.

Now we look towards the summer, where at least two of our best players will go, so we’ll have to replace our best defender and Jack Clarke’s 15+ goals.

That’ll be a very big ask and will test our current footballing model.

Reinvesting any money received for our best players is fine in theory but in reality you won’t be replacing on a like-for-like basis. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up in a state of continued development without really moving forward.

An interesting summer lies ahead, with the likelihood of some serious funds to invest in the team,

We’ll see if our owner has any real ambition or is just happy to pull in home gates of 35,000+ with the club ticking along and enjoying a jolly with his mates in the director’s box.

Perhaps we might even see what Juan Sartori actually contributes!

Neil W

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, John and Neil. Thank you for getting in touch.

To start with the topic of Jack Clarke, it’s important to remember that he was loaned out on a number of occasions during his time at Spurs without any real success, so I don’t think it’s entirely fair to claim that they ‘ruined him’.

There’s also no denying that this season has been far more challenging than any of us would’ve liked, and in many ways, it can’t end quickly enough. The club have made so many mistakes and whether that was down to arrogance, naivety or a combination of the two, it’s had a hugely damaging effect and they should rightly be criticised for that.

On the subject of Dreyfus’ ownership of the football club and what the future holds, I think it comes down to one simple question: is there a viable alternative to the plan that’s currently in place, by which I mean one that allows us to progress and challenge for promotion whilst not putting the financial stability of the club at risk?

The harsh reality is that football is big business nowadays, and Sunderland aren’t exempt from it. The account sheet has to look as positive and attractive as the football being played, and that’s simply the way the game is going.

We all know that there are plenty of owners out there who, if given the chance to get their hands on our club, wouldn’t deliver what the fans want. It’s easy enough to demand that owners ‘show ambition’ and spend accordingly, but that’s been the downfall of countless clubs over the years, including ourselves.

Would I be entirely surprised if Dreyfus eventually throws up his hands and says, ‘To hell with this. Someone else can have a go’? I can’t say I would be.

This club is hard enough to run when things are going well, but once you lose the trust of the fans and things start to turn sour, it often turns ugly very quickly. Let’s hope that we don’t end up with another summer of turmoil at boardroom level.

Dear Roker Report,

Although we lost on Saturday, the commitment was there for all to see, but we’re definitely three or four players short of being a dangerous team at the moment, which could be a good thing.

It’s almost certain that we aren’t making the playoffs, and despite everyone’s positivity and relying on results elsewhere, it just doesn’t seem possible!

Other certainties in my opinion are that we’ll lose Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard and Dan Neil in the summer, which would be a massive financial help for the short term goal of achieving promotion back to the Premier League.

For now, let’s talk about our performance against Norwich, which despite Leo Hjelde and Luke O’Nien not being able to head a ball, wasn’t all that bad!

Pierre Ekwah is a cog and a key one at that.

In recent games, he’s showed for and wanted the ball more than I’ve ever seen and that’s what you want from a player.

Also, his willingness to be the funnel in the team shows he’s matured and wants to keep progressing. It’s also lead to Neil being able to focus on the sitting role vs Ekwah going box-to-box. Synergies are forming!

I thought Romaine Mundle put in a real shift on the left and performed brilliantly in defence when required. It’s going to come good for him sooner rather than later and you can see why he’s been touted as the replacement for Clarke.

Hemir received minimal service on Saturday but he tracked back, won the ball, harried the midfielders and was more committed than Mason Burstow, so I’d like to see him and Nazariy Rusyn up top together.

Also, Adil Aouchiche must be bewildered as to how he’s not getting a start ahead of Jobe at the moment.

Sacking Tony Mowbray was completely wrong, in my opinion. Although he had no ‘Plan B’, and there was generally a quadruple change made in the sixtieth minute, we certainly would’ve picked up points against Hull, Birmingham and Swansea.

Don’t get me wrong: we saw some terrible performances under him but we haven’t dominated the ball since he left.

Forget the Newcastle game, because we got dog walked at home against Hull, away to Huddersfield and especially during the second half against Birmingham City. Sacking Mowbray and appointing Michael Beale has got to be up there with one of the worst operational and managerial decisions in football.

Can we beat Leicester? I think we can but some of the above needs to be actioned first.

Haway the Lads!

Calum M

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Callum. Thank you for your letter.

I agree that the performance against Norwich on Saturday wasn’t ‘bad’, per se, but it was timid and we didn’t really fire a shot in anger against a side who looked decent but not exactly world-beating.

Too many individual players are out of form and seemingly playing with fear, which is understandable, but we’re currently trying to play in a style that doesn’t suit us and we need to try and recapture the attacking approach that’s worked so well for us.

Regarding Tony Mowbray, the decision to part ways with him does look more misjudged with every game that passes.

He had a good rapport with the squad and although things had turned slightly sour towards the end, there’s a part of me that thinks he would’ve kept us in the playoff race had he been retained.

We’ll never know, sadly.

Dear Roker Report,

I saw Alex Neil apparently touting himself for the Sunderland job and the reaction was overwhelmingly negative. I’m not going to be obtuse and say I don’t get it, but would we have been so bothered about him leaving if he’d been poor?

Loyalty in football is something that also applies to the supporters in the stands.

Can you think of a player who’s sacrificed their career for the club? There are a few one-club men but can you think of any of them at lesser clubs? Francesco Totti is an example but that’s literally one in a million, so forgive me if I don’t hold it against Neil for moving on for what was reportedly more money.

We’re talking about what now seems a dead season.

I was watching Sunderland ‘Til I Die the other day and there was a scene which sticks in the mind, when Kyril Louis-Dreyfus stated that when replacing Lee Johnson, they looked for a head coach who’d been through the playoff system before and had done well.

Every time I write in or talk to anyone about the club, I always qualify it with how much I like the ethos of buying young and talented players, but what’s the point if we have no direction?

We were told that we’d be progressing this season, but it didn’t go to plan.

Michael Beale was a poor appointment. I believe he was a placeholder but he was terrible nevertheless. Dreyfus had the gall to tell fans to be realistic, but it looks like the club has given up and on top of that, our best player has probably played his last game for us.

The club looks directionless, and if we even thought about going up, we would’ve brought in someone like Neil rather than letting one of the coaches have a go.

The season’s over but those in charge haven’t bothered to tell us. Yet again, there’s no consideration for the fans, so what’s the point?

On a final note, when is this investigation into the Black Cats’ Bar fiasco coming to a conclusion?

Give us someone; anyone! I’d love to see the messages or the thread where it was confirmed, but I know I never will.

Jake

Ed’s Note [Phil]: When it comes to Alex Neil, I’ll always have mixed feelings.

I believe, and always will believe, that he deserves immense credit for getting us out of League One via the playoffs. He toughened us up, instilled a ‘no fear’ attitude in the players, and it led us back to the Championship in thrilling fashion.

On the other hand, the way he walked out on the club lacked class and respect, and I just don’t see a return as a viable option. Too much water has passed under the bridge and there’d need to be a hell of a lot of bridge building done, which I don’t see happening.

Michael Beale, meanwhile, was undoubtedly out of his depth at Sunderland, and there’s a strong argument to be made that his appointment was the decision that ruined our prospects for the season.

On the subject of the Black Cats’ Bar debacle, we know as much as anyone, which is nothing. Hopefully there’ll be some meaningful action taken, because what happened has clearly not been forgiven by many fans, and the club needs to work very hard to rebuild the trust that’s been lost.